Super Smash Bros. For Wii U Tournament in the Rio British House!

By LUDWIG VON KOOPA - It's an unofficial Olympic event in an official venue.

I'm pretty proud of Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. It's getting on one of the highest stages out there. The International eGames Group has worked out an agreement with the British House in Rio de Janeiro to have the Rio de Janeiro eGames Showcase 2016.

Here's an explanation of what that even is, from that hyperlink:

“The showcase will feature some of the leading eSports personalities in the world taking part in a showcase of SMITE and a full international Super Smash Bros. tournament.”

That's a MOBA (so who cares) and SUPER SMASH BROS.! It'll be taking place August 15 and August 16. According to the British House — the official housing arrangement for Team Great Britain — here's the itinerary for those days (I assume the times are Brazil time):

Sessions 1 & 2 in the morning, followed by “Is the climate debate settled?”

Then on Tuesday, sessions 3 & 4 of the showcase.

So... according to Shoryuken and Smashboards, Monday's sessions are for SMITE and Tuesday's are for Super Smash Bros. For Wii U. That makes Monday a total waste of time, right?

I mean, who wants to watch a MOBA followed up with some snooty “professor” who claims the “climate debate” is “settled”, and doesn't even have a strong British accent? (Or maybe I'm just desensitised after listening to British Bernie Sanders.) Imagine sitting through two and a half hours of this:

Professor Stephen Belcher doesn't even belch once in that.

I guess it fits with Rio 2016 to have eSports followed by climate change propaganda. After all, these Olympics are all about climate change, according to the Opening Ceremony.

Just a reminder that this isn't the official Olympics, and won't be broadcasted by NBC. (...Good.) It won't be broadcasted by the BBC either since they're busy with synchronised swimming and gymnastics. So, where is it? You CAN watch the stream here on ESL TV (not a competitor or an affiliate of KoopaTV). I don't think they'll cover the climate scientist guy, though. I could be wrong, and that's certainly something that's happened before — albeit rarely.

Oh, and if you're wondering: No word of Super Smash Bros. Melee being involved in any (fake) Olympic event. And that may be a good thing for its dignity, because, quite frankly, that frees the older game of being dragged down by the total disaster that Rio de Janeiro is.

Still, it's a step-up for For Wii U, a game otherwise known for pulling terrible timeslots at fighting game majors (EVO 2016) to make room for other games. Here, it gets the whole day (not counting the actual Olympic games) all to itself, at a dedicated eSports event that took coordination to set up! That's what I call a rebound.


The only event Ludwig will be free to watch is the climate science one with Stephen Belcher, and obviously he's not going to watch that. ...That's because he's busy during the day.


The next step: Videogames with the Special Olympics. Almost.